Automotive vehicles include seat assemblies for supporting occupants within the vehicle. Recently vehicles featuring folding seat assemblies providing for the mechanical folding operation of a seat between a seating position and a collapsed, stowed position providing for a level load floor have become a popular feature in vehicles such as minivans.
Conventional stowable seat assemblies typically are placed into the stowed position by folding the seat back flat against the seat cushion, and then rotating the seat assembly about a pivot, commonly attached to either the front or rear legs of the seat, into a tub or bin located in the floor of the vehicle. For example, commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,138 to Rhodes, et al. provides a forward facing seat assembly that is capable of being stowed by pivoting the seat about an upper pivot located on one of the legs pivotably attached to the seat assembly.
Generally, such known seat assemblies are typically capable of assuming one of three positions for use in the vehicle. First, the seat assembly is capable of being placed into a deployed position for carrying a passenger. Second, the seat assembly may be placed into a folded down position, in which the seat back is folded down onto the seat cushion providing the seat back as a load carrying surface. Finally, the seat assembly may be placed into a stowed position, with the seat stowed beneath the floor of the vehicle and providing a level load surface within the vehicle. However, when the seat assembly is in the folded down position, the legs of the vehicle seat are still deployed which reduces the cargo carrying capacity of the vehicle by decreasing the distance between the seat back and the ceiling of the vehicle.
It is therefore desirable to provide a seat assembly that is capable of both assuming a position in which the seat assembly remains above the floor of the vehicle while the legs are collapsed and assuming a stowed position which provides a level load floor in the rear of the vehicle.